"Young Religious ought to enter blogs and correct the opinions of the youth, showing them the true Jesus" - Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar for Rome

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Capacity to Love

"Sanctity is the only cure for the vast unhappiness

of our universal failure as human beings."

- Caryll Houselander

For all of you who prayed for the success of our recent Duc In Altum retreat: THANK YOU! Your prayers were heard and answered in marvelous ways. Unfortunately the days passed too quickly and kept me very busy...so busy that I forget to take one single photo. Oi! But take my word for it, from start to finish, the retreat was blessed and anointed.

Seeing those young ladies engaged in the great work of prayer and discernment was inspiring. Seeing the Holy Spirit so active and alive brought an influx of hope to my soul.

On our first Duc in Altum retreat I noticed something really beautiful: In the midst of this silent retreat (silent, save for recreation at dinner), there was a bond that developed among the retreatants. I attributed this bond to the fact that most of the retreatants already knew each other.

Well, that theory was blown out of the water last week. Again, we had the Duc in Altum and observed the silence (save for dinnertime) and most of the ladies did not know each other; and yet, I witnessed a similar bond being formed among the retreatants. It was both obvious and tangible.

I found this pattern very interesting and it got me thinking. My reflections led me to this conclusion: Love grows in silence - both our love for God and, perhaps more mysteriously, our love for neighbor. Each of these young women were keenly aware that they were not alone on this retreat, that they were supported by the presence of others on a similar journey. Each seemed to be lifting the other up in prayer. And it was there, in that silent support and care, that this bond began to be formed. It was reinforced during the dinner recreations where human interaction and shared experience brought such joy.

When striving for deep intimacy with God, inevitably we come to a deeper love of His creatures and all of His creation.

Sometimes I hear or read about these outrageous stories about how unfulfilled a priest or religious is because they can't marry. My response? What hogwash!

True fulfillment is borne, first and foremost, in our INTENSE and ALL-CONSUMING love for God. If a priest or religious is unfulfilled, I would dare to assert that perhaps it is because they have not tapped into true intimacy with God, and thus cannot know authentic and ardent love for neighbor. It is not because they can't marry. Otherwise you would never find an unhappy married person. Fact is, no matter what vocation you are called to, in order to be truly fulfilled there is a degree of intimacy with God that must be present in the soul.

I believe the great writer, Caryll Houslander, would agree with me from what I read in her quote below:

Sanctity is a genius for love. This is why the saint never complains of not being 'fulfilled'. No matter what the circumstances of his life are, the saint loves to his fullest human capacity not only supernaturally, though this is what really matters, but naturally too; and it is on the degree of his capacity for objective love, and on nothing else, that the fullness of any man's life depends.

Houslander goes on to say that: "It does not depend upon circumstances or chance, on whether he is gifted or not, on whether he has a happy or a melancholy temperament, on whether he is rich or poor, married or single, on whether he has a magnificent vocation or a humdrum one, or whether he travels the world over or is restricted to the same few streets for the whole of his life, on whether he is good looking or plain, on whether he is healthy or unhealthy..."

So you may be wanting to ask: THEN UPON WHAT DOES SANCTITY AND HAPPINESS DEPEND???

"...it depends upon one thing and one thing only - whether he has or has not the capacity to love."

The PCPAs of Our Lady of Solitude

"A religious community which refuses to conform to the requirements of the times becomes unfaithful to its founder, for it will no longer be able to do the work confided to it...A community keeps its youth if it is faithful to the spirit of its founder by striving to do things, not as they were done in the lifetime of the founder, but as the founder would do them if he were alive in our day."

About Us

Who are we? The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration of Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in the Diocese of Phoenix. We are in the process of building a new Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona. This blog is intended to keep all of our faithful friends and supporters up to date on the 'latest happenings' regarding this building project. It's also intended to keep you up to date on our day to day life and adventures!

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.

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as of Jan. 11, 2010

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WHY ARE POOR CLARES BLOGGING?

Blogs! To be honest, we never knew what they were until someone suggested that we begin our own! This usually is the way of it with us Poor Clares. When my Superior told me to create a website, I had never seen the internet, did not know what a hyperlink was, and had never heard of 'google'! Yet, here I am, on my 3rd website! And enjoying every minute of it! Why? Because it is our hidden way of evangelizing! It's our hidden way of spreading the fragrance of our life, of our contemplative existence.

It's with this in mind that we have created our new blog. It's blogging from the mountaintop of our prayer and from the valley of daily duty. It's sharing our joys and challenges - which are quite heightened with the upcoming construction of the new Monastery and Chapel. Having received so much, it's our joy to give back...not only through our intercessory prayer, but also in other little ways (like this website, our quarterly newsletter, and now our 'blog').

Our contemplative life is meant to be an inspiration for all of you who are on the front lines! We hope that these little means of evangelization give you some refreshment (and that our prayers supply you with ammunition, so to speak), so that you can keep fighting the good fight of the faith.